The invention relates to a system for coupling the public telephone network to the Internet using a number of Points-of-Presence, or PoPs, arranged between the public telephone network, or Public Switched Telephony Network PSTN, and an Internet Service Provider, or ISP.
Access to the Internet is permitted by Internet Service Providers. With the present system of coupling to the Internet, each ISP has a number of arranged PoPs.
Through the public telephone network, indicated as PSTN, an Internet user establishes a connection with a POP of the desired ISP. Then, from the PoP the traffic is routed to the ISP concerned through a fixed connection.
When the routing is applied as described in the non-prepublished dutch patent application NL-1008259, one PoP per traffic exchange area for each ISP will suffice. Furthermore, then directly at the source it will already be known that it concerns Internet traffic.
Necessarily, the ISP must provide for a covering network of PoPs and further rent fast connections between them and its central server. This is a relatively expensive matter, particularly for smaller ISPs.
The object of the invention is to remove this difficulty and to that end provides for, that a POP is executed such, that it can switch a received signal through to more than one ISP.
This means that a number of ISPs can use one single switching PoP, in which such a PoP itself will allot the traffic to the various ISPs. Thus, the number of PoPs can be considerably reduced. Such a switching PoP can be applied for all or a number of ISPs for providing the routing to it. There, the required conversion of circuit-switched into packet-switched can be under the responsibility of an Internet Access Operator to be established.
The switching PoP will comprise a system that can be chosen from the public telephone network by various numbers, in which the selected number determines which ISP is contacted. If the network operator of the PSTN has chosen a routing as described in the previously stated dutch patent application NL-1008259, then the chosen number will consist of a so-called prefix, indicating that it concerns an Internet call, and a serial number being unique per ISP.
The PoP assigns a free modem from the modem bank to the call and establishes the connection with the Internet server. Now the Internet server assigns an IP address to the caller based on the selected telephone number. With that, it is fixed which ISP the caller will be connected to.
The nature of the connection between PSTN and PoP also depends on the regulations in force. If the PoP is considered as a subscriber connection, then this should be a ISDN connection having DSS1-signalling. DSS1 is understood to mean Digital Subscriber Signalling. If, on the other hand, the PoPs are considered as another network, then the connection should take place in the way standard networks of other operators are connected, as e.g. according to Q.767 or Q.763.
The outgoing router of a PoP will be connected to a Frame Relay or other packet-switched data network by at least a 2 Mb link. Communication with the central servers of the several ISPs will then take place through said Frame Relay network. The switching PoP will provide for establishing a data connection with the desired ISP depending on the selected number. A PoP manager can be added to the PoPs described. This is a PC directly adjacent the PoP or at a distance from it, controlling a number of PoPs and performing the following functions:
a) configuration management: management of the tables for conversion of telephone numbers into IP addresses;
b) error management: indicating and recording errors in the connections to the PSTN and to the ISPS;
c) performance management: monitoring the load of the PoPs for timely enhancement of the capacity; and
d) accounting management: recording the use of the PoP itemized per ISP in order to be able to charge the costs in proportion.